Wednesday, August 9, 2017

WHERE THE BOYS ARE: Blu-ray (MGM 1960) Warner Archive

Singing
sensation Connie Francis made her auspicious movie debut in Where the Boys Are (1960), a Joseph
Pasternak production that cast her as Angie, just one of the girls out to take
advantage of the annual Fort Lauderdale pilgrimage for college-age men
seeking…well. Arguably, the real star of
the picture is Dolores Hart, playing forthright and intellectual, Merritt
Andrews, one of the poorest academics at this undisclosed Midwestern University,
chiefly because she clashes with her cultural studies professors about their
outdated and archaic curriculum. Right off the bat, George Wells’ screenplay
jettisoned a vignette from Glendon Swarthout’s novel where the students are
seen raising money for arms to support Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution.
Replacing political activism with a light smattering of burgeoning sixties
feminism, our Merritt confronts her fairly prudish and decidedly buttoned-down
professor, Dr. Rausch (Amy Douglass) on the rights of young women in contemporary
society; in full support of exploring their own sexuality on their own terms
rather than suppressing it, ‘playing house’ with the right – even the wrong –
boy before marriage to get a little ‘experience’. Naturally, this incurs Dr.
Rausch’s displeasure. Dean Caldwell (Mary Patton) is none too thrilled by
Merritt’s outspokenness either, suggesting it may threaten her future at the
college. Nevertheless, Merritt is admired by introverted fellow student, Melanie
Tolman(Yvette Mimieux) who, in allowing her inhibitions to
slip while on spring break, will come to bear the scarlet letter of rape,
presumably a very unjust penitence for her naiveté. In retrospect, this
incident ominously foreshadows a similar fate to befall Connie Francis on
November 8, 1974; raped and nearly suffocated to death under the weight of a
heavy mattress at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson’s Lodge where she was
performing.

Where the Boys Are does, in fact, have a lot to say
about the foibles of human sexuality, albeit from the still largely homespun and
antiseptic perspective of the ultra-conservative 1950’s; splashy in Metrocolor
and Cinemascope (a hallmark of virtually every Joe Pasternak picture since his
discovery of Deanna Durbin and Jane Powell); its ‘message’ interpolated with
light comedy, more than a tinge of idiotic slapstick, and a popular singer of
her day – in this case, Connie Francis – warbling the title tune under the main
titles and hitting another out of the park by taking over a jazz jam session
conducted by her soon-to-be boyfriend, near-sighted Basil; belting the sassy ‘Turn On the Sunshine’. Both songs were
written by Francis’ long-time collaborators, Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka.
Interestingly, Francis had absolutely no ambitions as a movie star. Indeed,
Pasternak’s invitation to partake of Where
the Boys Are was almost immediately shot down by Francis until she had had
the opportunity to do a little bit of research on the producer’s track record
for turning relatively unknown singers into international super stars. Where the Boys Are may not have given
Francis much to do, but it nevertheless served as the springboard for the
lucrative film career that followed it; the plot of this movie far more
intricately focused on Merritt’s burgeoning love affair with wealthy playboy,
Ryder Smith (George Hamilton – who thought he was making a ‘little nothing’ and
did not enjoy it) and cohort, Tuggle Carpenter’s (Paula Prentiss) awkward
romance with TV Thompson (Jim Hutton); a lanky booze hound with big feet and a
roving eye for buxom aqua-star, Lola Fandango (Barbara Nichols doing an utterly
cruel – if hauntingly spot on lampoon of Esther Williams).

Billed as a
coming-of-age comedy, Where the Boys Are
is loosely based on Glendon Swarthout’s novel of the same name with Pasternak,
then in the twilight of his illustrious Hollywood tenure, proving he still had
what it took to create a mega-hit, targeting the bull’s eye of the teen market.
Where the Boys Are is shameless
pop-u-tainment; featuring exotic locales, fresh-faced and mostly good-looking
youth, and typical ‘fun in the sun’
escapism. Fort Lauderdale, already the ‘destination
paradise’ for more than 20,000 affluent college-bound kids, received an influx
of nomadic citizenship to its sun-kissed shores when Pasternak elected to hold
the picture’s world premiere there. Curiously, Paula Prentiss won a Laurel
Award as Best Comedy Actress. Both she and Jim Hutton were immediately signed
to long-term contracts. But the real appeal for Pasternak making the picture
derived from the novel’s relatively clean subject matter. “There isn't a gat, knife, or marijuana cigarette in the whole thing.
These are good students.” During the preliminary stages, Natalie Wood,
successfully graduated from child star to teenage pin-up, was seriously
considered for the starring role. Wood, however, thought the premise quite juvenile
and a decided step back from the trajectory her career had taken as a ‘serious
actress’. Besides, Wood had already appeared in such heavy-hitting dramas as
1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and
1958’s Marjorie Morningstar. The
cotton floss and fluff of four girls out to snag future husbands in Where the Boys Are therefore must have
seemed simplistic and silly by comparison. To direct the film Pasternak turned
to stalwart warhorse, Henry Levin who, by 1960 had illustrated nearly two
decades of on-time and under budget competency in the picture biz, making
mostly forgettable movies that nevertheless made money.

Pasternak, always
keenly attuned to the vanguard of pop culture, with an uncanny knack for
tapping into its trends and fads, sometimes even before they had evolved as
such, herein tapped into the college-craze for ‘dialectic jazz’; original
compositions written and performed by Pete Rugolo, if transparently owing their
inspiration to such iconic west coast jazz musicians as Dave Brubeck, Gerry
Mulligan, and Chico Hamilton. Given the picture’s success, rather inexplicably
MGM elected not to release a soundtrack album to coincide, although Connie
Francis did release a single of the chart-topping title song. Even more
incredibly, this song was not the one Francis and her song-writing cohorts preferred.
Having recorded two completely different versions to pitch to Pasternak, the
trio never dreamed the producer would choose the silken smooth ballad, much to
Francis’ dismay. Nevertheless, in years yet to follow, the song ‘Where
the Boys Are’ would become an anthem and signature tune for Francis,
recorded several times thereafter.

Where the Boys Are is essentially a ‘coming of age’ comedy charting the
exploits of four Midwestern university students on Spring Break. Merritt,
Melanie, Tuggle and Angie all come from privileged, but isolated upbringings,
amplified by their cloistered ‘all girls college studies’ that Merritt in
particular finds woefully outdated. Indeed, what more is there to be said about
a university whose professor of Cultural Studies uses such artificially
constructed jargon as ‘interpersonal
relations’ to describe the sexual impulses bouncing between college-aged
boys and girls, and whose Dean references sex as ‘a problem’ to which the highly literate and more forthright Merritt
swats back, “What could be more
interpersonal than backseat bingo?”, and, to the latter query, “I’d say there were probably a half a
million co-eds…with 98% of them…overly concerned with that ‘problem’. So, in
that respect, I guess I’m fairly normal!”

Merritt’s declaration,
apart from causing a few suppressed giggles to permeate the otherwise austere
atmosphere, also serves to inspire Melanie to lose her virginity soon after the
young women have arrived in Ft. Lauderdale. But Where the Boys Are takes its time getting to these sunny shores
with a preamble in some snowy Midwestern campus (actually shot on MGM’s ‘girl’s
college dormitory’, seen in countless movies: from everyone’s favorite varsity
musical, 1947’s Good News to 1955’s
intense melodrama, The Cobweb). We segue to Florida (or a reasonable
facsimile of it, again on the MGM backlot); as kindly police captain (Chill
Wills) instructs his officers to be on the lookout for trouble-makers among the
revelers about to descend on their quiet beach community, but also to exercise
restraint and treat everyone with the dignity and respect of a visiting guest.
And so, the girls head to Ft. Lauderdale, along the roadside picking up TV
Thompson; a hitchhiker desperate to partake of the advantages of a spring
fling. Tuggles is immediately attracted to TV and why not? They are the same height
and have the same shoe size! Oh yeah…it’s love!

Ft. Lauderdale
is decidedly not without its temptations; then, as now, boozin’, ballin’ and
brawling – young hot-headed blood and testosterone chasing after bikinis and
skirts, hoping to lose both inside a seedy un-air-conditioned motel room. While
Tuggles follows TV into one bar after another (he gets sloshed and attempts
repeatedly to reintroduce ‘sex’ into the conversation), Merritt catches the eye
of Ryder Smith (George Hamilton), a bronzed and wealthy Ivy Leaguer who wastes
no time whisking her off to his parents’ moneyed summer estate, and then onto
their yacht. Attended by the family’s butler, Wesley (Owen McGiveney), Merritt
is impressed: just not enough to toss her knickers into the air for this
smooth-operating Lothario. As is often the case in life – and particularly, in
movies – her forthright clarity translates to charm and proves the magic elixir
for Ryder. He wants the one he seemingly cannot have. Meanwhile, in another
part of this perpetual party zone, Melanie has landed herself a Yallie,
Franklin (Rory Harrity) who is none too serious about practically everything.
Actually, the guy is a cad. Naïvely, Melanie mistakes Frank’s passionate
advances for true love. The two indulge in some heavy make out sessions before
Melanie confides in him that one of her girlfriends came to Ft. Lauderdale the
previous year a virgin, but went home with a new husband. Frank’s not into this
level of commitment; nor clingy relationships with doe-eyed females for that
matter. So after Melanie agrees to meet him in an out of the way motel, Frank sends
his hot and bothered wingman, Dill (John Brennan) in his stead. As the word
‘no’ is not in this stud’s vocabulary, Dill takes advantage of Melanie against
her will.

Sometime
thereafter, Tuggles, TV, Ryder, Merritt, Angie and her new beau, jazz musician
Basil, all partake of a fashionable nightclub where the star attraction is Lola
Fandango – an Esther Williams knock-off, cavorting acrobatically in a gigantic
glass tank. Alas, TV, already three sheets to the wind, slinks backstage,
diving into the tank after Lola, accompanied by Merritt, Angie, Basil, Tuggles
and Ryder. It’s the campiest sequence in the picture; goofy to a fault, hardly
amusing, and frankly, too silly to be taken seriously, even as a counterbalance
to the aforementioned rape. Fishing everyone out, the waterlogged entourage is
arrested and brought before the Police Captain. Quickly dismissed, but ordered
with some disgust to behave thereafter, everyone retreats for a moonlit
rendezvous at the beach. TV makes a play for the simple-minded Lola who
performs a raunchy dance, much to Tuggles’ chagrin. She weeps genuine tears, is
admonished by TV for her faith in him and runs away to weep some more. In the
meantime, Merritt returns to her motel room, taking a cryptic phone call from a
half-shell shocked Melanie.

Ryder has his
suspicions as to where Mel’ might be and takes the girls in his convertible to
the motel where she was raped. The inference he has been there before sickens
Merritt. But they find Melanie wandering in the middle of the highway,
sideswiped by an oncoming vehicle that drives off without even acknowledging
the incident. Rushing Mel’ to hospital, later, in the corridor, Merritt becomes
enraged and lashes out against Ryder; applying the typical broad brushed
accusation to all men for their ‘healthy’ sexual proclivities; presuming women
do not endeavor to explore their sexuality in the same way (and this, despite
Tuggles’ earlier declaration she plans to be a ‘baby maker’ for the right
guy!). As Melanie awakens in her hospital room, tearfully aware of both her
actions and their consequences, Merritt vows to remain at her side until she is
fully recovered. Tuggles, Angie, Basil and a reformed and apologetic TV prepare
for the long drive back to reality and the cold harsh Midwestern winter that
awaits them. Alone and left to contemplate her fractured romance, Merritt takes
a quiet stroll along the vacated beach. Suddenly, a shadow appears from behind.
Ryder has returned, confessing his love – not just as a spring fling. It’s a
little too simplistic a resolution to what was always a very superficial romance
with barely a chaste kiss to recommend it. But the couple’s reconciliation serves
as the proverbial ‘happy’, if somewhat sober, ending amidst all the chaos and
otherwise ‘party hard’ ridiculousness preceding it.

Where the Boys Are’s sexual politics time capsule has
dated over time. Even its wholesome frankness harks back to a simpler time in
American culture when sex and love seemed more clearly divisible as two-halves
comprising the perfect union. Yet remarkably, not all that much regarding the
wants, desires and basic needs of the sexes has changed in the interim. Man/girl-chasing
remains the popularized pastime of youth everywhere – if distinctly, in Ft.
Lauderdale; everyone desperately in pursuit of their first real introduction to
that mature and ever-lasting relationship. Despite its naïve impressions, Where the Boys Are remains contemporary
in its treatment of young women; canny, dynamic, and mostly capable at distinguishing and intercepting those
game-changing strategies and sex-traps designed to get them into bed. The
picture also does not shy away from depicting rape as a humiliating and
soul-stealing act. Despite its light and fluffy trappings, Where the Boys Areis mostly straightforward about the potential payments
and perils courtship presents as college-bound women prepare to take control of
their futures, while juggling the wolves.

The picture
was so successful Pasternak announced plans for a follow-up rather than a
sequel, Where the Girls Are – to star George Hamilton. It was, in fact,
Pasternak’s goal to reunite Hamilton with Prentiss, Hutton and Mimieux for the
romantic comedy, Only a Paper Moon. The movie was, in fact, eventually made as A Ticklish Affair, although without any
of these actors. In addition to spawning a whole slew of ‘beach blanket’ youth
in love and in crisis knock-offs (with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon), MGM,
already in the throes of a steep financial and artistic decline, did its level
best to launch a new screen team in Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton who went on
to costar in Bachelor in Paradise, The Honeymoon Machine (both made and
released in 1961) and The Horizontal
Lieutenant (1962). In 1984, TriStar
Pictures remade Where the Boys Are,
costarring Lisa Hartman, Russell Todd, Lorna Luft, Wendy Schaal and Lynn-Holly
Johnson. Alas, with the focus of Stu Krieger and Jeff Burkhart’s screenplay squarely
resting on the appeal of hot bodies pressed tightly together, the picture’s
emotional core was lost and the movie tanked at the box office. And although
the original movie is hardly as ‘progressively’ minded as it once seemed,
Pasternak’s Where the Boys Are
remains a lithe and lovely pastiche to the way we used to be. In some ways, I
would have these more innocent times again.

Where the Boys Are arrives on Blu-ray via the
Warner Archive (WAC). The picture was shot in Cinemascope by Robert J. Bronner and,
in remastered MetroColor herein, looks about as good as to be expected. In
fact, for this new to Blu release, WAC commissioned a brand new 2K scan with
considerable color-correction and cleanup applied for good measure. As director, Henry Levin was only allowed to
shoot part of his movie on location, we get to see the transgressions of ‘rear projection’ in Cinemascope; virtually
all of the interiors photographed on sound stages at Culver City. Look closely
and you will be able to recognize a lot of these backlot facades from a
multitude of other fondly recalled MGM productions from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.
Under these varying lighting conditions, colors are mostly bold and fully
saturated; though darker scenes tend to suffer from a muddier palette,
amplified by a loss of fine detail. Sharpness is also variable, but in keeping
within the limitations of early Cinemascope lenses. Aside: the main titles give
credit to Panavision for supplying the lenses rather than Bausch & Lomb.

Also, while
virtually all of the music was recorded in full stereo, MGM went for a cheaply engineered
mono mix, faithfully reproduced on the Blu-ray in 2.0 DTS. It’s a pity not to
hear all that great jazz and Connie Francis in remastered 5.1. But at least
this restored mono remains faithful to the original intentions of the studio;
albeit, as short-sighted as they were. We get all of the extras that came with
Warner’s defunct DVD, ported over on the Blu – none of them properly
remastered. There is a brief ‘look back’ featurette with Paula Prentiss and
Connie Francis; a newsreel outtake from the Ft. Lauderdale premiere, the
original theatrical trailer, and a commentary track – rather meandering – with Paula
Prentiss. Bottom line: Where the Boys
Arewill not win any awards for Blu-ray of the year. But most of its
limitations are inherent in the original film stocks, lovingly preserved with
marginal clean-up to boot. Recommended for fans.

About Me

Nick Zegarac is a freelance writer/editor and graphics artist. He holds a Masters in Communications and an Honors B.A in Creative Lit from the University of Windsor.
He is currently a freelance writer and has been a contributing editor for Black Moss Press and is a featured contributor to online's The Subtle Tea. He's also has had two screenplays under consideration in Hollywood.
Last year he finished his first novel and is currently searching for an agent to represent him.
Contact Nick via email at movieman@sympatico.ca